Here's some info that should be helpful. Scroll down to #2

Here is a link that might be useful: Kitchen Faucet How To

aliris, your Blanco is a Cascade sink. Very good choice. It comes with a colander / strainer box that sits on the raised platform portion of the sink.

Your Kraus SemiPro faucet will spray into the drain. So, on that score, not to worry.

Btw, I've always thought it's a dumb notion that a faucet *must* spray into the drain, or "should" spray into the drain, or should be positioned above the drain. Last week I read it was one of six criteria in a web article that many people liked. It's a good criterion for a small lavatory faucet over a small bathroom lav sink, to make sure its spout isn't too short (no room for your hands) or spraying too far forward in a shallow sink. But in a kitchen faucet, that whole concept of reaching the drain ought not to be put on any list of things to check: here is why: all kitchen faucets have (in all cases) a reach of 8" to 9inches. That radius (8" to 9") makes the spout spray anywhere in a 16 inch area, or much more. Some spouts are angled slightly forward not spraying straight down. The radius of action could be a lot larger than 20". But, even if it's only 16 inches one can manage to get a healthy stream of water pushing stuff to the drain. For the specific action of moving a spray wand around the sink to hose down the sink walls and push stuff to the drain, people use their spray wand, so the location / position of the hard metal spout is once again an unnecessary criterion. End Rant.

Check (on the Kraus web site) that you have the option to place the handle of the Kraus faucet either on the left hand side, or the right hand side. This means it can also go in the center. Centering it puts it directly above the sink edge, closer to your hand (left or right hand). Since the sink is big, and it will be set back a few inches from the counter's front edge, your arms have to reach about 21.5"(+-1") to touch the handle centered in front of the faucet pillar.

That is still comfortable when standing ramrod straight. But, put the handle on the LHS or RHS, and you add a couple more inches, which may change your posture to reach those two extra inches, thereby putting you into a habitual crouch or bend. I think this is a consideration.

On the KWC site I've seen images of faucets with the handle centered. Also, I think the Grohe site or other sites by Swiss and German companies. But not in most other sites. The motion you make all the time, the ergonomics of habitual action, the way things are set up: think about this.

One question you may ask one day is whether your Kraus purchase was a high quality for the price. As in any faucet, the aerator is what produces an aerated stream. It's a $5 to $10 component. Both the handspray and the metal spout each have an aerator. Ask Kraus if they are the same or different, and which one is good for rinsing veggies and leafy greens. You may find out that the handspray is too strong for most leafy greens. If you don't care about this, and you are sure you won't care, then don't let this bother you now.

The diverter is the invisible thingie that sends water to the second stream when it's on, and it cuts the water flow to the first stream. Ask Kraus if using the handspray cuts the flow to the main spout. Diverters often leak or perform imperfectly. If you don't care about this, and you are sure you won't care, then don't let this bother you now.

The cartridge (and handle) regulate flow and temperature. Many don't do a good job of this, but most people don't care much about it either. For temperature regulation if they can get three temperatures they are happy: very hot, warm, cool. Flow regulation being "not good" means you also get only about three real choices: full blast, something like high, something like medium, and a trickle option that doesn't produce a nice flow or noise. If regulating the flow is something you don't care about this, and you are sure you won't care, then don't let this bother you now.

Noises made, when the faucet cartridge is limiting flow partially, can be painful to some people who hear hissing whistling sounds in the background behind the stream flow noise. Note that Swiss and German faucet manufacturers must publish results of noise testing standardized for their industry, so they are permanently motivated to have low-noise cartridges at all levels of flow restriction.

If you want to keep looking, my bet is that a Grohe or KWC would meet the criteria. E.g. the "Ono Highflex" which has an invisible spring inside the rubber hose, so it returns to resting position just like the semi-pro faucets that have visible steel springs coiled around a hose.

Hope this helps you so far.

Thank you, droll David. I appreciate all the info and haven't yet quite worked through it all but it looks very helpful. I was wondering about the cost:benefit when I saw on first glance that the KWC wasn't actually seemingly sll that much more expensive. The reviews for the Kraus are so adulatory but it's not as if that's a random sample of respondents. I'll try to look into figuring that one out.

Roccoco -- I appreciate the link; shoulda known Buehl had already been here. Sorry I keep forgetting to check back to that post. BTW - I noticed your kitchen in the done ones yesterday. Wow - very inspiring; quite beautiful. Now I get the name!

davidro -- check the KWC website. Many of those spouts are 12-inches long. Spout projections from other manufacturers are all over the place.

Your information that all spouts are basically the same projection is greatly contradicted by facts.

There is generally accepted practice for a properly installed kitchen sink faucet for it to empty into the drain.

Obviously, it's sometimes not possible with certain sinks. Then again, anyone can do anything they want. Sometimes that's fine; sometimes that's not.

Like Davidro, I don't see why the spout and the drain should line up. In the article, it says this is to avoid splashing issues. I just checked my faucet and sink. When the water hit the smooth sink bottom (from 23" above), there is very little splash. Splashing happens when the water hit the strainer. So IMHO, they shouldn't line up.

But that's an interesting question -- why *does* splash happen? I've read that it happens when the sink is "too deep". That seems weird to me - wouldn't the deepness contain the splash? DD contends it's when spray and drain align - you say empirically nu-huh. I would guess the composition of the sink (absorption of water "bounce") would have to matter, and the force of the water and the engineering of the aerator? Also the drop from spout's edge to sink - I could see these and other factors all interacting such that there might not be a clear answer to the question: what factors create water that splashes out of your sink?

Then again, maybe it's easy.... if so, what's your thought on this?

FWIW I was thinking spout and drain should align for aesthetic reasons, mostly. But also function in that you'd like the water to run away and not pool in the sink. Course if it did that there was probably only a leveling problem with the sink.

One thing's for sure. I know from experience - as drolldavid says: make sure there's enough overhang of a bathroom faucet for your hands, for crying out loud! Geesh. That's the stupid stupid mistake I'm faced with. grump.

They make aerators now that produce a maximum stream and not more than that, no matter how much water pressure there is. ("... and the force of the water and the engineering of the aerator...")

I just went to a fixtures showroom and overheard someone getting the salesperson to show her more kitchen faucets with a "small tip". She had already seen the KWC Ono (the pulldown). After seeing more faucets, she bought the KWC Systema (the pulldown), which is the same one that rococogurl wrote about. The one on display was the short version. In section 2 of the article linked to in rococogurl's first post, there are pictures of that KWC faucet and its small "wand".

The KWC Ono Highflex was deemed too big and heavy in the hand. The others from KWC were on display in stainless steel (solid not PVD): the Eve, the Ono pulldown and the Systema pulldown. The Suprimo pulldown was not there. For reasons unknown to me, the prices of the KWC faucets were lower in that store than on internet sites (I just did a search). Caveat: KWC has strange naming conventions for their faucets (many different shapes carry the same name) and their web site is not easy to navigate. So be sure to look for the pulldown versions of these four I have named if you are looking into this more.

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I think the advantages of pulldown spray tips are significant (compared to pull-Out wands that face forward). Pulling them out is easier because you only have one motion to go through, a downward pull. The tips (wands) are smaller and so easier to move around, and the tips are already oriented in the right direction, the vertical axis, so swinging them around is like holding a pen or a small paintbrush.

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I wrote that kitchen faucets all have a radius of 16"_or_Greater_ : I think this concurs with the post which later said the same thing: that some spouts are greater than 8" reach.

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Hth

Aliris,
I have that exact sink (I love it!), and a pullout Hamat faucet which has an 8.7'' reach. I find its reach to be fine, and with the pullout, I can reach all around the sink with no problem. This sink drains very well, even though the faucet isn't positioned directly over the drain. I don't have any splashing, but since my faucet is so much shorter than your choice, I don't think that's a valid comparison. HTH

Hi rococogurl - Did you write that article? It's *great*.

Warmfridge - I know you have and love the sink; your recommendation is part of the reason I bought it. I've been keeping a mental list of who owns the sink. I'd love to get a parade of pictures of it, including faucet and surrounds! I'm pretty sure you've posted it before but I don't see your pictures in the finished kitchen blog. Maybe I'll start a show-me-your for this sink?...

So David, are you saying you think Grohe or KWC is a better value for money over Kraus or just speculating it might be? I'm just curious whether this is a state-able conclusion for you or not. I'm really not sure how to evaluate that myself. I would imagine, though I don't know, that even listing out all the internal parts and their composition won't get you to a real answer because there are undoubtedly design issues about, say, where you put that ceramic washer or whatever -- the whole is likely greater than its parts.

But I do note that brand names have come way down in price lately on these commercial-style faucets, so maybe it is worth looking into a brand name. Though as we all know, the brand names can make good and not-so-good lines. When you're not a plumber, or even anyone who knows the first thing about any of all this, it's really tough to bootstrap. So I'll value your own bottom-line conclusion: can you say that you believe Kraus is, in general, likely inferior to Grohe/KWC? FWIW there are many on this forum who have sung the praises about Kraus (though come to think of it, maybe that was for sinks and not faucets) and online reviews are generally raving...

Thanks, all, for your help. I finally laid out the faucet I bought for the prep sink, sketched out onto a roughtop and determined it does work afterall (I was worried it was too long but as it goes on a diagonal, all will be well I think). And as noted by warmfridge, I believe the Kraus would work, though not at the corner. Does anyone here actually own the Kraus 1602? I may separately with that in the heading.

Thanks, all.

Guilty. Thanks. I've got some more interesting info coming next week.

If you don't mind someone other than David answering, either Grohe or KWC make excellent products. I've never seen Kraus faucets but may just be market I'm in -- people on here love them and no one is shy about posting dislike. Also, don't overlook ebay as I've seen some great buys on there.

I had a bit of a faucet saga during last reno. I wanted a certain Rohl and there just weren't any in the country. It was more than I wanted to spend but it was a perfect scale, type, projection and fit. Ideal. But they couldn't even tell me when they would get them. I couldn't have an open-ended wait.

So I was forced to look at dozens and dozens of faucets -- spent weeks on it which is how I got a lot of my info. Just reading those spec sheets. Also went in person to the big showrooms for the "touch and feel." Hadn't really considered KWC until I saw them in one of the showrooms and my trusted dealer wasn't so much on the brand. But I was really impressed with the way they looked and felt. The one I found fit all my criteria for the sink. I got a great price shopping it hard online and found one in stock. It's been amazing.

Actually I like it better than a faucet in our house which is a whole big design ho-ha and was raved over etc. Sometimes you can just connect with the right one. If that's Kraus for you and it fits, and has everything you want and feels good in your hand and the price is right...

Well ... haven't ever seen it; haven't actually ever seen *any* of these commercial faucsets. Haven't used one, haven't felt it, haven't seen it. You'd think I lived in the boonies and not ground-zero for consumerism in America. There must be someplace I could go check these out, working... I just can't find it. I get hives when I think about walking into showrooms, or at least ones fancy enough to house this sort of thing.

Who can recommend a showroom in the LA area that's not more than, say, 40 min drive from WLA and where someone will actually talk to me, not talk down to me, not sell me, have some competence, etc. I am just so uncomfortable in these places. And I don't wear the right clothes; I get ignored. s'OK I guess, but it's really not what I want to be doing.... can't you just tell me what to get? ;)

West LA. Jeez woman. Some of the biggest showrooms on the planet are close to you! You live in home fixture central.

Hey LA folk -- will you please help this woman with kitchen faucet showroom names?

You gotta go touch and feel a faucet to know what you like. Just do it.

aliris19, on every web site there is a "find a distributor" tab. You click on it and find a list of retailers that are close enough to interest you. Do this for Moen, for Delta (Brizo), for American Standard (Jado), for Kohler, for Elkay, for Blanco, for Hansgrohe (Axor). This will get you to a few places that will have a mix of several manufacturers' faucets including some high end manufacturers too. The names in brackets are divisions of the company that act like separate companies but are in reality only slightly more independent departments, with a new brand name to go on their creations.

You have to go see how much you like each faucet. The trend is now towards miniaturization. Aerators, valves and waterways can be slender now, so the faucet "body" can be too.

I haven't spent much time on Kraus. Rococogurl has already mentioned criteria that she looks at, like e.g. is there a complete technical sheet. My criteria are similar to hers. Kraus hasnt't gotten past my first screening, because they seem too much like all those other importers who put together a few easy drawings and call themselves a famous company. I'm not much interested in getting significant information from one channel only (a voice on the phone if I call).

Btw I've emailed large companies and gotten more than one answer from more than one person, in response to a single email, and the answers contradicted each other... and this company is huge, so imagine how fly-by-night a much much smaller company might be (!). I don't know what to think of Kraus and I don't have a strong inclination to research it.

Everyone has different budget considerations. Fortunately, there are good faucets at every price point. Unlike so many other things these are still mostly very good values.

curmudeon mode on...
It's only a kitchen, Aliris!

Whatever you choose will do fine. Be sensible and ignore the static.

Have fun stormin' the castle!

Aliris,
Here are some pics of this sink that I found online. A couple have the same style of faucet that you're considering:
http://cft411.com/2010/07/27/blanco-sinks/
http://directory.kitchenbathdesign.com/product/10153587/Blanco_Silgranit_Sinks
http://fsi_qa.homeportfolio.com/WhereToBuyIt/250240
http://gracehomeandliving.com/?p=540
http://www.ebuild.com/articles/1024187.hwx

rococo - I know. It's really sad, isn't it? I actually looked one up the other day online and saw there was a showroom in Santa Monica and actually made an effort to go there ... it's closed. I loved their stuff! It seemed like the one and only place I'd have gone into. Then, in the mood, I passed a new-ish looking place that was obviously highend and I actually stopped. I walked through the whole place; it was spooky. There were a few salespeople scattered about, mostly talking on the phone. Not a one of them came up to me. Not one. I looked through the whole place but there weren't any of those commercial faucets.

As I say, I detest shopping beyond all else on this earth, really. Well, maybe not really. But it's close. Again, forcing me into remodel-mode was not a wise choice lifestyle-wise.

Rococo was it you who said you come here to LA and walk down/up Robertson enjoying the displays? Maybe I should go there, but I'm just not sure I'm strong enough. I will try I guess, but I'm not sure that's the right place, honestly. I don't think 'design' equates with massive-working-faucets.

I have actually gone through the 'find a distributor' exercise with a couple set of buying decisions. One thing that happens in a big city is, you find this stuff is just not true. I went to 6 places listed on Blanco's site as having silgranite sinks: not a one of them had it; not one. I finally found one, literally buried in a sub-counter display behind many dozen boxes of *heavy* appliances in a store that was not listed on the website as having their product. The exercise wasted about 5 of my hours if not more. Just awesomely wasteful and frustrating.

True, it's possible faucets might be more fruitful, but for one not inclined to shop to begin with, it's hard to get up the courage to waste so much time and gas again.

Warmfridge -- thank you! It is really helpful to see that stuff.

sigh. I will go tomorrow in search of a real-live faucet-blaster. Someone must have one! ooooooph.

Yes, I really enjoy visiting the showrooms in LA. They have natural light and they're not on the 19th floor.

I wouldn't take anything anyone in a showroom does personally.

Figure out the brands that interest you and go to the showroom/s that have those. I always take a camera and a notebook to write down the style #s.

If I recall, there's a very large showroom in WLA that's pretty famous out there and has most everything. I can't recall the name but it's very well known.

For $260 on overstock.com, personally I'd just order it and move on to the next issue.

Sure, you might hate it, but you might hate any faucet - until it is in your house spraying water in (or not in) the drain of your sink, can't say if any faucet will be a yay or a nay. No matter what they look like in a showroom.

Maybe, first take a few minutes to make a cardboard cutout to scale, so you understand the size of the thing, and the clearances required.

i'll agree with the advice to order something and just move on, aliris19, on the condition that it be a faucet from one of the manufacturers that are deemed to be highly respected, or biggest, or most well known. Based on what I know of you from reading your threads in the last six months, I think you would be happiest with a faucet from one of those major league companies, and if you got a faucet from a small time player, you would soon be posting about some aspect of it that is less than satisfactory. (e.g. as mentioned above, the divertor, or the aerator causing splashing, or whatever).

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Or, alternatively, to honor the sink, you really should apply to Faucet U. and take the courses for an equivalent degree as your other degrees in your main field.

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Or, somewhere in the middle between the two alternatives, you go to a showroom, touch every faucet handle, move every pulldown, and ask them how it will be in YOUR kitchen. Many showroom faucets have been damaged by customers pushing handles too far, and do not have "well installed" pulldown hoses.

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aliris19 i mentioned above the likelihood that something will displease you; you may have already been told somewhere else in life that you are fussy (or some other similar term). Sooner or later, in this faucet selection process, you will have to bring forward your ONE single main criterion that overrides all the others. Only by touching real life faucets will you be able to bring that out. (that is my opinion).

The more you ask, the more you learn, the more I will keep on pointing you to KWC because it's "Swiss quality" -- if you wish to order sight unseen.

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After one long visit in a showroom, I think this purchase is one you can make in the same showroom that you are in. Unless you want to post again after that visit.

''Maybe, first take a few minutes to make a cardboard cutout to scale, so you understand the size of the thing, and the clearances required. ''

I made models out of coat hangers covered with aluminum foil. It was really helpful to see the scale of some of the faucets.

Hey y'all -- thanks. I did mock it up, or close-enough (seems I forgot to mention that above; sorry. It was fun -- there's finally a roughtop in place so I sketched out the sinks and projections). It's poised for a big space so surprisingly, its purported massiveness will probably work. As warmfridge and probably others noted, its 9.5" "throw" will too.

At this point, frankly, I'm mostly worried about the droll warnings on here about its off-brandedness. I'm not really sure what to make of that, frankly, as so many customers seem giddy with excitement about the Kraus. Unfortunately not, seemingly, from this site (that is, they're not unhappy with it here, there just seems to be silence regarding it). And of course it is completely true that I cannot and have not felt it. But I am cognizant that even though there a large number of accolades, few if any of them represent anything other than happiness with appearance, as opposed to function.

I think it is Buehl who posts periodically to remind people that offbrand sinks, namely Kraus, are just wonderful. And many have taken her advice and are happy for having done so. However Sinks and faucets are likely very different animals. FWIW I too bought a Kraus sink and while it isn't installed, I'm as thrilled with the next about the packaging (I'm not kidding, most of the accolades wax on and on about the packaging; that is why their owners are so happy!).

So ... it's kind of news to me that I'm coming across as such a name-brand devotee but maybe it's true. I guess I think I want to remember how much is getting spent overall and not go crazy about saving pennies and losing the dollars. (pennywise-pound foolish). And I hear you saying that's the case here.

No offense but I also hear you saying you just don't know. And that's where I'm a little stuck. I don't actually think there's anything inherently wrong with Chinese offbrand products -- I could be wrong of course, particularly when there are working, moving parts involved and also conversely when the price differential may not be so huge. But having come to all this with no experience whatsoever, the idea of spending hundreds on a faucet has me agape. I had no idea a person could spend that much money on a faucet. I would have thought they were about $1-200 max. That's how out of it I am.

I guess one question I have is: how difficult is it to replace a faucet if/when this one stops functioning? I just learned, to my surprise, that the counter guys route out the holes after the tops have been largely cutout. That's good news as therefore one could punch a new hole in place if necessary. Covering up one would obviously be more problematic but I'm sure people figure out creative solutions for even that.

So I'm leaning toward johnliu's point of just getting it and seeing. This, BTW, is where I usually wind up getting off the shopping train: before ever reaching the station. That is, this is why even though I'm located in a megalopolis of shoppers, I wind up buying most everything sight-unseen. I'm interested in what I choose; not in what I don't!

Nevertheless, I will foray to a couple more stores today. I am mystified by rococo's memory of a large showroom. I'm sure it has to be true, but I am also sure I have zero idea where it might be. I could call my KD but she's so incompetent... I have tried to converse with her about this issue and it's not as if she said: "oh, just go to xyz and you'll see it all splayed out in front of you there". True I didn't ask the question but it would seem the obvious thing to offer were it to exist.

And geesh, drolldavid - do I complain on here that much? I didn't think I'd been posting displeasure.... maybe I have and didn't realize it! sorry... and thanks all.

It should be easy enough to change with another single-hole faucet that uses the same diameter hole. Most or all of the consumer ''pre-rinse style'' faucets are also single-hole, and some of the real commercial ones are too. I didn't check to see if the diameter hole for this one is weird or anything.